Breakfast, a source of energy for the brain, is important for keeping the brain fully active in the morning and improving work and study performance throughout the day.
The brain works by taking in glucose, which is made from carbohydrates found in rice, breads, noodles and so forth, but the brain will not work well unless energy is supplied. If you do not eat breakfast, it means that your brain can only begin working after eating lunch.
A recent study on the relationship between breakfast and the brain conducted at Tohoku University’s Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (IDAC), showed that gray matter in various areas of the brain was related to the type of food ingested. Results showed that people who mainly ate rice had more grey-white mass (mainly related to language function which is related to a high degree of understanding of the meaning and concepts of words) than those who ate bread.
The reason why rice is said to be better for the brain than bread containing the same glucose is that the GI value (glycemic index), which indicates the speed at which glucose is consumed, is thought to have an effect.
However, it is also necessary to have nutrition that can be absorbed from side dishes such as vegetables, meat, fish and soy products. The combination of rice and side dishes is important for the brain because glucose requires vitamin B1, supplemental nutrients such as chromium, lysine and alpha lipoic acid.
If it is difficult to prepare rice and side dishes on a busy morning, why not start by adding one dish from the previous evening’s meal and a lot of miso soup?